Catheter systems are becoming an increasingly common way of diagnosing and treating abnormal heart conditions, in particular, heart arrhythmias. Such arrhythmias can be treated with drugs or by use of electronic devices such as pacemakers. However, neither of these treatments cures the problem but only alleviate it.
In contrast, the use of ablative techniques has been shown to cure arrhythmias. Thus, catheters having mapping electrodes and/or ablative electrodes are inserted through the vascular system of a patient's body so that the distal end of the catheter can be placed accurately in the relevant chamber of the heart. For the treatment of atrial fibrillation, the distal end is placed at the ostium of one or more of the pulmonary veins, in turn, to effect ablation.
Thus, it will be appreciated that the catheter needs to be in a sterilized condition for use and various catheter systems with steering mechanisms included are known.
Because of the fact that the catheter system comes into contact with bodily fluids of a patient and with the increasing prevalence of blood-borne diseases, medical regulations require that these catheter systems are one-time-use systems only. In other words, once the catheter has been used, it must be disposed of in its entirety.
Certain institutions do re-sterilize the catheters for re-use. However, there is a problem associated with this, in that with re-sterilizing the catheter, it may become degraded and not function correctly.
In addition, the increasing complexity of catheter systems for monitoring or mapping and/or ablation has resulted in these catheter systems becoming more expensive. Thus, it is costly to dispose of such a system after one use only.